I'm not at all a Leupold fan as you can get much better scopes imo for cheaper. However, the Prostaff doesn't even come close to rivaling Leupolds top dollar scopes. I've done a writeup comparing it to a VX-I, and it's very very close in comparrison. The only big difference I've seen is that my VX-I has been in for repair twice and the Prostaff hasn't, however, I've only been to the range with the Prostaff once. I knew it wasn't that great when I bought it, but I got a smoking deal and wanted to test it myself and figured I'd sell it later on. The Burris FFII I have blows it out of the water in every category in both daylight and low light. Of course it blows the VX-I out of the water too.

Honestly, I'd probably pick the Prostaff over the VX-I, but it's not up to par with the VX-II or VX-III, or the Mark 4 which is Leupolds "top dollar" scope.

Here is my review on the Prostaff.
http://opticstalk.com/nikon-prostaff...opic25460.html

Here is another perspective just in case you don't believe mine.
http://opticstalk.com/inexpensive-sc...176_page1.html

So checking out online comparisons it doesn't look like the Prostaff rivals the top end Leupolds like you claim.